BOSTON — Republican presidential candidates jousted over conservative purity Sunday as they raced across the South, the Midwest and New England in a late scramble before the Super Tuesday contests that could settle the party nomination.
With polls suggesting that Republican voters were consolidating behind John McCain, the Arizona senator made a foray into former Gov. Mitt Romney's home state of Massachusetts. He greeted New England Patriots fans in a Boston tavern just before the team's Super Bowl kickoff and spoke openly of his plans for the general election.
Campaigning in Illinois and Missouri, Romney fought to keep McCain from establishing a sense of inevitability. He urged Republicans to pick a nominee with stronger conservative credentials, describing McCain as "indistinguishable from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama" on immigration, the environment and taxes.
Romney also withstood a withering new assault from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who called on him to drop out of the race. Huckabee ridiculed Romney as a recent convert to conservative ideals, saying he had rankled many by "shouting 'Hallelujah' louder than the rest of us who have been in church a long time."
The religious imagery underscored the struggle for evangelical support between Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister, and Romney, who has encountered some voter prejudice against his Mormon faith. Evangelical voters will be a powerful force in Alabama, Oklahoma and other states.
For all of the major candidates, the party's 21 nominating contests from coast to coast on Tuesday pose a daunting challenge. With time running short, each traveled Sunday to targeted states and congressional districts.
McCain turned to Connecticut and Massachusetts, where many like-minded moderates reside. "It's great to be back here in this great state," he told Boston supporters from the steps of the Green Dragon Tavern.
Romney, who holds a presumed edge in his home state, shrugged off the McCain incursion. "If he wants to spend time in Massachusetts, that's fine," said Romney, who worked the suburbs of Chicago and St. Louis. "I don't think it will help him a lot."
Huckabee stuck to Georgia and Tennessee, where Southern kinship might work in his favor.
All three tried to maximize their reach with stints on national Sunday morning TV talk shows.
McCain told CBS that his record was "more conservative than Gov. Romney says." He went on to portray Romney as an opportunist who lacks core principles.
